Star Of The Sea (Rumpole Crime) [Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Joseph O'Connor (Author), Peter Marinker (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005 | Series: Rumpole Crime

In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by injustice and natural disaster, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees, some brimming with optimism, many more desperate. Among them are a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his wife and children, an aspiring novelist, a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. Each is connected more deeply than they can possibly know. But a camouflaged killer is stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution. The twenty-six day journey will see many lives end, others begin afresh. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, ducked responsibilities regretted too late; profound relationships shockingly unearthed where once it seemed there were none. In a spellbinding story of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the further the ship sails towards the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past which will never let them go. A novel as urgently contemporary in its preoccupations as it is historically revealing, this gripping and compassionate tale builds with the pace of a thriller to an unfor

--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Joseph O'Connor's impressive historical novel, Star of the Sea, examines the unsettled personal tragedies among a group of interrelated characters and their difficulties in disregarding the past. Lord Merridith and his family board the titular ship in 1847, bound for New York, leaving behind an Ireland devastated by famine and strife. The family's beautiful nanny, Mary Duane, is with them, having fled a life of poverty, prostitution, and extreme tragedy. Another passenger, American journalist Grantley Dixon, is lured to America by business and his thinly veiled affair with Lady Merridith. Mary Duane discovers that Pius Mulvey, her former fiancé and the brother of her deceased husband, is among the overcrowded group of disease-ridden steerage passengers. A renowned thief and murderer, Mulvey abandoned Duane, only to return and sabotage her life in Ireland. Despised by his countrymen, Mulvey has been ordered by a group of steerage thugs to assassinate the demonized Merridith or face his own death.

Conflict is inevitable, but O'Connor is more interested in the complexity of history and relationships and how each makes reinvention and resolution impossible. O'Connor presents the story as a work of journalism written by Dixon, composed in the era's tabloid style, even including passages from the captain's register and crew interviews. These devices lend the work a sense of authenticity, reinforced by the author's intimate knowledge of the period and his evocative, realistic prose: "At night one sensed the ship as absurdly out of its element, a creaking, leaking, incompetent concoction of oak and pitch and nails and faith, bobbing on a wilderness of viciously black water which could explode at the slightest provocation." O'Connor conveys a sense of immediacy and dimension in his ambitious story, providing this uncertain voyage with an ultimate sense of direction. --Ross Doll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

First published in the U.K. and shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year, this brooding new historical fiction by novelist, playwright and critic O'Connor (Cowboys and Indians) chronicles the mayhem aboard Star of the Sea, a leaky old sailing ship crossing from Ireland to New York during the bitter winter of 1847, its steerage crammed to the bulkheads with diseased and starving refugees from the Irish potato famine. The novel takes the form of a personal account written by passenger G. Grantley Dixon, a New York Times reporter who intersperses his narrative with reportage and interviews as he describes the intrigue that unfolds during the 26-day journey. There's Pius Mulvey, "a sticklike limping man from Connemara" known to the passengers as "the monster" or "the ghost," who shuffles menacingly around the ship and is the subject of many a rumor. There's Earl David Merridith of Kingscourt, one of the few passengers in first class, who has evicted thousands of his tenants for nonpayment of rent, dooming them and their families to almost certain death by starvation. Also aboard is the young widow, Mary Duane, a nanny for the Kingscourt children who shares a history of intimacies with both Kingscourt and Mulvey. And there is, of course, Kingscourt's wife, with whom Dixon is having an ill-advised affair. One of these passengers is on a mission to commit murder, and another is the fated victim. Through flashbacks, the complicated narrative paints a vivid picture of the rigors of life in Ireland in the mid-19th century. The engrossing, well-structured tale will hold historical fiction fans rapt.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Chivers Sound Library; Unabridged edition (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792734408
• ISBN-13: 978-0792734406
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,029,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vital message in an epic tale, June 3, 2005

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star of the Sea (Paperback)

Star of the Sea is a name that inspires confidence, the sort of jaunty, streamlined ship that any would-be seafarer would be proud to board for a swift cruise across the sparkling ocean. But Star of the Sea is a hell-ship, barely seaworthy, carrying too many starving and pitiful Irish refugees from the great famine of 1847 in its hold, carrying too little food and fresh water, and numbering at least one black-hearted killer among its passengers.

Star of the Sea, a daring novel by Irish author Joseph O'Connor, is an engrossing tale of many parts. It is an engrossing murder-mystery set at sea. It is a piece of historical fiction that presents a vivid picture of a grim, hopeless time. It is a tale of disease and deprivation among the desperate poor of Ireland, whose hopes for escape are too easily shattered by circumstance. It is an indictment of class and privilege. It is a series of character sketches, colorful episodes, dark secrets and layered purposes.

This ambitious book reads so realistically, it's hard to believe it's not lifted directly from the pages of history. Set within the framework of a 27-day voyage from Liverpool to New York, the story unfolds through a series of narrative sequences, flashbacks, letters, log entries and reminiscences. The dramatic and complex plot comes to us through varying perspectives, and O'Connor juggles diverse points of view without ever letting the thrust of his story slip. He avoids the easy path, the overly sentimental images that could steal the wind from his sails; his blunt honesty about conditions in Ireland and aboard ship is a heavy enough weight in the belly that he need not resort to such obvious tricks. He wraps a vital message within an epic tale that will not soon be forgotten.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A ripping good read., May 2, 2003

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Star of the Sea (Hardcover)

When the "potato famine" of 1847 was over, two million residents of Ireland had died agonizing deaths, most of them from starvation. The events which led to the famine, the people who were directly affected by it, and the steps taken to ameliorate or escape it are the subjects of Joseph O'Connor's intense and heartfelt novel, Star of the Sea, named for the British-owned "famine ship" which is the center of the action here.

O'Connor presents four main characters who recall the pivotal experiences of their lives which lead them to make this fateful, 27-day journey. The reader becomes emotionally involved with their stories, acquiring a broad background in Irish social history--and its tragedie--in the process. Thomas David Nelson Merridith, Lord Kingscourt, is the ninth generation of his Protestant family to govern Kingscourt, with hundreds of workers dependent upon him. Now bankrupt, he and his family are going to America, first-class. Their nanny, Mary Duane, has recently joined the family, and her stories of her past loves, her marriage, and her loss of her own children illuminate the bleak prospects available to this warm and intelligent, but desperately poor, woman.

G. Grantley Dixon is a caricature of the liberal American do-gooder, whose reports about the plight of the Irish poor are influenced by his own socialism and by the reform-minded traditions of his family. Self-centered in his attitudes and limited in his social graces, he is detested by Merridith. Pius Mulvey is a mysterious ex-convict who comes from the same town as Merridith and Mary Duane, directly connected to both of them. One of over 400 passengers who have paid $8 per person for passage, he is crammed into the fetid and dangerous quarters known as "steerage," expected to stay alive on one quart of water a day and half a pound of hardtack.

O'Connor pulls out all the stops here in this big, broad melodrama, but an honesty of emotion and a fidelity to the facts here saves the novel from bathos and gives the reader cause for thought. Moments of both ineffable sadness and high drama arise, and O'Connor's imagery, especially his sense imagery, is arresting. Occasionally, his compression of time, for the sake of story, leads to anachronisms--several mentions of evolution, with parallels between monkeys and Irishmen, ignore the fact that Darwin's Evolution of the Species was not published until twelve years after this famine. Still, O'Connor presents a compelling story with many unforgettable details of Irish history. The ending is preachy, but the author does provide a follow-up on the characters after their arrival in America. The fact that at least one character becomes a politician (later accused of misappropriation of funds) will surprise no one accustomed to politics. Mary Whipple

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book!!!!, February 18, 2006

By 

Buffy Bennett "Book Lover" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star of the Sea (Paperback)

I just finished reading this one, and man, what a treat!!! I've been a fan of Irish American History since I took a class on the subject in college. As the daughter of an Irish immigrant (of the 1960's, though, not the 1840's as in this book), I have a special place in my heart for these stories. Joseph O'Connor has crafted a tale of the horrible Potato Famine of 1847 -- and the years proceeding and following it -- in such a way as to make the reader feel completely immersed and care about each of the complex characters. Having visited Ireland myself a few years ago, I really appreciated the details of the Irish landscape and the people who make this land great. I particularly liked the way this novel ended. Not a nice neat package; in fact, it keeps you wondering up until the end about what exactly DID happen. As the narrator states, things are never simple. Life just doesn't work that way, so why should literature? People are complex: no one is completely evil, no one completely innocent. I highly recommend this one, particularly to those who have Irish ancestry. This is one to be savored for each beautifully-crafted word and phrase; it's not to be rushed through. Enjoy the journey! Climb aboard The Star of Sea!